Bankrupt and traumatised: Paul and Sandra Dunham are contemplating life in separate prisons in the US

A British couple who are the latest targets of the controversial extradition treaty with the US face dying behind bars – in a dispute over work expenses.

Paul Dunham, 58, and his wife Sandra, 57, say they will consider ending their lives rather than spending years in an American prison segregated from each other.

The couple, who have one son and five grandchildren, were arrested at their four-bedroom detached house in Northampton 14 months ago and are set to be extradited within weeks.

They are being treated as criminals under the Extradition Act, despite campaigners saying the row is a civil matter.

The couple – who are backed by the mother of computer hacker Gary McKinnon – expect to spend the next couple of years in a US prison for offences they insist they did not commit. As they wait for the case to be heard, the pair – who have been married for 35 years – will not be allowed to see each other.

Speaking for the first time about the case, Mr Dunham last night told the Mail: ‘Once we are separated and incarcerated, to us, the point of life will be over.’

His wife added: ‘This has completely destroyed our lives. It is like a horror movie.’

Mr Dunham ran the UK arm of an American soldering iron manufacturer PACE, while his wife worked in sales at the company. After 25 years of service, they were asked to move to the US to take charge of the firm in 2005.

Owner William Siegel promoted Mr Dunham to chief executive after removing his son Eric from the business, but in May 2009, after Mr Siegel had a reconciliation with Eric and brought him back into the business, the couple resigned and returned to the UK.

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Eric Siegel now claims that between 2002 and 2009, the couple embezzled more than $1million (£610,000) in expense claims that were not legitimate.

In December 2011, Mr Dunham was indicted on 13 counts of fraud and money laundering by a grand jury in Greenbelt, Maryland, and faces a jail sentence of 340 years.

Threat: A British magistrates' court ruled in July that their extradition to face a US prison could proceed

His wife was indicted on eight counts of fraud with a possible sentence of 240 years.

They had no chance to defend themselves and, incredibly, had no idea the grand jury had even met until police arrived at their home in November 2012.

A British magistrates’ court ruled in July that the extradition could proceed. An appeal hearing at the High Court on February 6 will decide if the couple can be detained and forced to return to the US within weeks. Their trial might not start for years but they will likely be deemed a ‘flight risk’ and be denied bail.

Angry: Janis Sharp, mother of Gary McKinnon, who was saved from extradition, said it breaks her heart to hear the Dunhams' story

The couple have already been made bankrupt because of a related civil claim. They are surviving on £16 a week in tax credits and the wages from Mrs Dunham’s part-time job in accounts.

The couple say the allegations against them are ‘without merit’.

Mr Dunham said: ‘We do not want to end our lives. Nothing would give us greater satisfaction than to get back on our feet and get somewhere close to where we used to be. But once we are incarcerated that is a real possibility as we are not going to have each other.

‘If we get put on that plane and taken to the US, we are going to lose this house and everything in it as there will be no way of paying the mortgage or the bills.

‘We are going to lose our dogs. My father is 84. A year or two years later what are we going to come back to? Nothing. Sixty years of age and homeless. That is not a life I want to consider living.’

Opponents of the extradition treaty say it is lopsided, with seven times as many Britons being sent to the US as have travelled in the opposite direction.

Janis Sharp, mother of Gary McKinnon, who was saved from extradition after a Mail campaign, said: ‘My heart breaks to learn of the terror that another family is going through as a result of the UK’s cruel extradition legislation.’

Melanie Riley, of campaign group Friends Extradited, said: ‘How many more lives have to be utterly destroyed before the British Government realises that all campaigners are calling for is a more humane extradition system?’